


Not Faux

by CelticGHardy



Category: Warehouse 13
Genre: Community: trope_bingo, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-01
Updated: 2014-06-01
Packaged: 2018-01-27 20:48:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1722086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CelticGHardy/pseuds/CelticGHardy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The last part to <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/1688270">Crossed with Criminals</a> and <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/1716044">Follow the Detour.</a> Liam's been thinking about Jersey just as much as Steve's been thinking about him.</p>
<p>Good things, he's been thinking good things.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not Faux

**Author's Note:**

> Trope bingo - reunion

Liam had been as consumed by thoughts of Steve as the other man had been of him.

For him, it started during the jug debacle. There was a week of trying to explain off the lava, destroyed cars, and the dead inmate before someone shut it down from higher up. His boss gave the paperwork a stink eye before he was allowed to move on to more active cases. When he wasn't trying to figure out who shut it down, he was going over what Jersey talked about during their 'heart to heart'. Trial and error told him that romantic and work partners never liked hearing the truth about personal habits. Yet Steve had that damn lie detector, and every time he had covered his distaste over his tea or something else, he knew. It ruined their relationship, and Steve abruptly broke up with him right before dropping off the grid. And then during that car drive, he talked about Liam possibly being his one, and said that not being able to make it work with him might mean not making it work with anyone. They had separated with something repaired between them, to become tenuous friends at least.

Truth was, since that interaction, Liam had only dated two guys. Neither lasted more than a date, and they were both too much like Jersey to even discuss why they didn't last. They weren't him. He was starting to realize a little late that he should have tried to fix things with Steve, starting with the lying about what he chose and how he felt. Then, he was chasing Lihala and saw Jersey again. Liam doesn't know how the hell that happened. Seeing Steve after he had decided that he wanted to be with him had to be the biggest coincidence that he had ever experienced. And damn, if he was going to let this get away from him. That Brid's cross was only supposed to work on women and their male partners, and yet it brought them back together. Carnally, at least. That cemented it in his mind that they were supposed to be together.

They separated, again, jobs needing to be done. Liam agonized over the decision. He wanted to explain himself to Steve, wanted to relieve his thoughts and what he thought about them. He had come into this perfect speech about realization and feelings and he couldn't tell him because they were apart and working. There were elaborate plans set up and worked out carefully only to be deleted and tossed in the trash due to certain factors. Some were ridiculous and cliched. And they always ended up where Steve was, which he hadn't found out yet.

About five months into his dilemma, Pete decided to reach out. At first, it started out just talking about movies and cases from their jobs. Secret Service dealt with a lot of weirdos and he dealt with a lot of convicts and runners. There were some useful tips exchanged. Then, they branched on the topic of Steve. Pete was telling him about some of the things he noticed about their mutual friend. Both of them did not like the tea he drank. He was worried about something Jersey was going through. Liam wanted more information, and managed to get something about the cross he had touched. It made women pregnant. What would it do to Steve? _Maybe it just draws same sex couples closer. Or, maybe Jersey's experiencing, what is it, a sympathy pregnancy? What's that fake pregnancy thing?_ Pete apparently agreed with the fake pregnancy thing and started talking about when they found him on the floor after a bout of 'morning sickness'. He was eating roughly about the same as Pete was, which was surprising to their group. He was gaining a belly, which Liam wanted a picture of because the man liked being fit as he could.

The next month, he ended up crashing into Pete at the small diner he usually treated himself to every week. The man was having one of the pancake specials and he ended up joining him over his normal meal. They talked about Steve a bit more, talking about the 'pregnancy' and how he was overreacting due to hormonal changes. There were a few new stories and they ended up walking out to a nearby park. He saw Myka, Pete's partner, and realized that maybe the man hadn't come here by coincidence or friendly chit chat.

“All right, I know I'm a lowly marshal,” he said, “But you two didn't come out to just to trade more stories about Steve, did you?”

The two exchanged a look before turning back to him. “You remember the Brid's cross?”

And that's how Liam found out Steve was pregnant. With his child.

Every instinct blared at him to join them at that moment. But he needed to go back to work. After a month, he managed to get a weekend off to go up to the address that he had been given. The town was smaller than the one Jersey described growing up in and he thought he wouldn't have liked coming back to a place like this. But unlike growing up, he had a few friends that were willing to support him and an actual supporting town, it looked like.

_No turning back now._ If they hadn't notice him driving up, they would notice the doorbell ringing. He didn't know who was going to answer, and he didn't expect the woman that did. “Can I help you?” she inquired, a little defensive.

“Pete and Myka invited me. I'm, uh, Liam Napier,” he introduced.

“Oh, Liam, great,” Pete rushed, coming down the stairs once he started hearing it. Myka was also there along with a man that Liam had only seen on those tiny screens. “Artie, Abigail, this is Liam. Steve's, something.” Yeah, that's the best way to put it. Something equally the guy that got their guy friend somehow knocked up. “Great, you're here, let us just...”

“Pete,” Myka started, but was interrupted by two more people trying to come down the stairs. Claudia waved at Liam, but the person right behind her was shocked as hell. Liam was stunned as well. Steve had a large shirt on, but it couldn't cover the swell of his stomach. And he knew enough female relatives to know when someone was pregnant.

The next three minutes were quiet before Artie started grumbling about organizing and Myka volunteered to help, grabbing Pete and pushing Claudia forward. Abigail mentioned something about baking, which left the two of them standing in the hallway. “My room's upstairs,” he muttered. Liam took that as a lead to walk up behind him as he went back to his room. The door was closed and he sat back down on his bed, elevating his feet. “So, Pete and Myka told you?”

He found a desk chair to sit in. “Yeah, ambushed me a little last month. That's when they explained about the cross and how it worked,” he said, “At first, I thought Pete was telling me stories about you having a sympathy pregnancy.”

He smiled. Closer up, Liam saw redden eyes and left over tear tracks. “Doesn't surprise me.”

The two didn't know what to discuss. The baby was obvious, there wasn't much else to know about. He knew about the conception date, had a fair idea bout the ending date. It looked like he didn't have to worry about anything, his friends keeping him safe and healthy. Well, that left one topic left to broach.

“I was an idiot,” Liam started. Steve looked over to interrupt him, but he continued. “I had been an idiot the first time. All right, people don't like knowing the truth about their bad habits, so lying to cover up what I didn't like was natural. It's hard to break what you've ingrained yourself to do over years to respond to crap situations. And I realized too late that I screwed up what I had with you. I tried others, and I figured out I was trying to find a bad copy of you to replace.” Steve felt something small expand. “I was gonna explain after you got that cross, but the way things worked, it would have seemed that the cross was making it up.” He nodded, getting where he was coming from. “Damn, Jersey, I'm not.... I want to get back together with you. Not just for the baby and not just.... This isn't influenced by anything. This is me, saying that if you...”

Steve knew where he was going, and he was damn grateful for it because he wasn't sure if he was going to react well if it turned out the other way. He started crying again and Liam thought he had said something bad before he was hauled up and squeezed tightly. “Yes, yes, fuck,” he muttered, “I want to try again.” He laughed, “I want to be us again.”

“Did you just quote country, Jersey?” he joked, carefully hugging him back. The bump was against his trunk and it felt weird to him. It was even weirder when he felt the baby moving. “Whoa.” He backed up a little to see down at the area. “Do you mind if I....”

“Liam, she's yours,” he interrupted.

The other man placed a hand on the area and felt more as the baby reacted positively. “She?”

“I, I didn't want surprises.” They started laughing again and Liam kissed him. “Is it bad that I imagined this?” he inquired.

He shook his head. “No.”

Steve smiled, “Not lying.”

**Author's Note:**

> I was going to have the last part be the birth, but I'm running out of time.


End file.
